Candeloro Tour - Show des Champions
in Lausanne, Tuesday October 15th, 2002
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I
had been waiting a lot for this day, but when I actually found myself
in Lausanne I was pretty worried.. Getting 
there,
finding the hotel, everything had been easy (thanks to the week I had
spent in Lausanne in January following Europeans - we knew where the station,
the rink, the hotel was...) but when we got to the Malley ice center we
had a big, big problem to solve: not having been able to get a mail back
from Philippe in the last few days, we had to find a way to let him know
we were there, to get passes he had promised us in Lecco... Not such an
easy task. Asking was quite frustrating: the security gave you all kinds
of contrasting infos, we weren't even able to figure out if the skaters
where already there or not. We had to spend the whole afternoon waiting,
not even knowing if there were tickets left to buy if we didn't managed
to talk to Philippe, since the desks would open only later... And if we
had done a four hours trip till here and we couldn't see the show??? It
would have been too terrible! Since I was the one speaking both English
and French quite easily I was left to wait on my own near the back entrance,
while Silvia and Angela waited together (to give each other support in
case they needed to speak to someone) by the front of the rink... we didn't
trust the info we had gotten (in fact those who had told that the skaters
would arrive from the front had lied!) and we had decided to control both
sides of the rink waiting for Philippe. The plan was that the first to
spot Philippe had to stop him to talk - if it was me ok, I just had to
say hello and talk, while if he appeared on the other side of the building
they were to stop him - one telling him I was arriving and the other one
calling me on the phone to make me run there. For this purpose Silvia
had a little note we had put down together, to remember what to say in
French to Philippe while I ran fron the back side of the rink. We had
to wait A LOT!!! Really - hours! When finally the bus appeared (on my
side) I had to fight my way towards it, convincing the security guard
that I was not trying to infiltrate in the arena, and that I didn't even
want to disturb the skaters; I just had to see Philippe - if he was there
he would recognize my face and speak to me because he knew I was coming
to the show. Probably this last bit convinced him I was telling the truth
- he let me stay and watch the skaters descend. I recognized almost everyone
- 
Urmanov,
Krylova, Drobiazko, Vanagas, Butyrskaya, Surya & mom, Kovarikova,
Besedin, Polishuk... and Philippe??? He was not there!! I looked around
and saw
my friends arriving from the other side of the rink and made a gesture
to say "he's not here!" . My face must have been quite peculiar,
even the security man had pity of me and called me to talk to another
man, dressed as part of Philippe's team who introduced himself as Jacques.
I explained him all my story about knowing Philippe and the e-mails and
the show in Lecco (girls from the Gallery - you know all the story! Others
can ask! alhrayth@fastwebnet.it
), how he had promised me some passes, etc. He was very nice too, saying
how Philippe had been busy on the tour and how little time he had to check
the mail, took my name and gave me a piece of paper with his phone number,
with instructions to call him around 18.30/19 - he would check with Philippe
what to do. At this point we were very very tired, still worried ("and
if I call this number at it doesn't work? or no one answer?" I kept
thinking this but had not the strenght to share this one more doubt with
my friends...) but there was little else we could do, so we went back
to the other side of the rink to wait. We chatted, watched the people
passing by, and by the time it was time to call mr.Jacques we were totally
exhausted and on the verge of desperation. I was so tired that I wished
so much to have someone else able to make the call because I was afraid
of my own French, but of course I knew I was the only one to do it. Face
to face with someone you can help yourself with gestures, etc but on the
phone you have to be able to speak and understand - so it was my turn.
Waiting for this man to answer his ringing mobile phone, I was terribily
scared, and even more when, after I introduced myself, he started speaking
away from the phone, asking " Hey Philippe, do you remember a girl
named Paola from Italy..." at this point I was making absurd faces
to my friends and had my heart trying to jump out of my chest - and if
Philippe didn't remember me on the spot? What could I say?? Ahh, terror!!!!
Thankfully our lovely skater immediately answered YES (I could hear him
too from the phone) and I must have made some kind of victory sign....
then I lost a bit of the conversation between them, but when mr.Jacques
returned to the phone he told me to go to the accreditation at 8pm to
get something - I didn't understand if he said places (seats) or
passes ... in French they sound quite the same from a noisy mobile
phone! In fact I insisted (I was so tired I had lost a bit of my usual
shyness) about going to meet Philippe after the show, etc... he said it
could be difficult, and probably at the moment he didin't knew what he
could arrange... he told me to try to get to the entrance at the end,
there would be confusions, and a lot of security from the rink, but he
would come there too and if he managed to see me he would try to let me
in... I thanked him a lot and reported the news to my friends. We were
already a lot more relaxed - now we knew that we were going to have at
least some kind of places, no matter where. So we stopped worrying about
not being able to see the show and went to the nearby little mall, to
eat something at the same pizza place we had often used in January. We
relaxed, chatted, ate, refreshed up a little... a few minutes before eight
pm we went back to the arena to try and see what had been left for us.
We were ready for everything - even the worst places of the arena, as
long as we could get in to see the show.... imagine our jump when we were
handed three of these:
Wow! Philippe had given us VIP passes???? We couldn't believe our luck!! We have never gotten more than regular tickes, and not even always in the best category... this was sooo amazing!! Where would these be??? We were going away when the man behind the desk stopped me and handed me a shiny little card with Philippe's logo... it was the pass for the backstage!! Mr. Jacques had been so dubious that I wasn't waiting for it anymore - but Philippe is just too nice, and here it was!!!
